First Base Face Off: Carlos Delgado vs. Lucas Duda

If you polled a majority of Mets fans on whether Carlos Delgado or Lucas Duda were better during their time with the Mets, I assume most would probably answer Delgado.

I wouldn’t blame them. Delgado was part of a robust Mets offense that included the magical 2006 National League East champion team. The Puerto Rico native also had some big seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays in the ’90s and early ’00s as well, prior to joining the Mets. He hit 40+ home runs twice three times with Toronto, and hit at least 30 eight times.

Over his 17-year big league career, Delgado hit 473 total home runs and owned a .282/.392/.556 triple slash, with 44.1 fWAR.

While he had some monster seasons with Toronto, including a 2000 campaign that saw him put up 7.4 fWAR, was Delgado truly better than Duda during their respective times with the Mets?

It might just be the history that came with Delgado, or the fact that Duda played on some bad Mets teams, but the comparison is not an egregious one.

Let’s start with Delgado’s time with New York.

After whiffing on signing him prior to the 2005 season, the Mets kept their eyes set on the first baseman, and struck a deal with the Florida Marlins to bring Delgado to Queens in the 2005-06 offseason.

The Mets sent first baseman Mike Jacobs, pitching prospect Yusmeiro Petit and minor league infielder Grant Psomas along with $7 million to Florida for Delgado.

By the time he arrived in Queens, Delgado was 33-years-old going on 34, but still gave them some production in the middle of their batting order.

In 2006, Delgado launched 38 home runs, hit to a .265/.361/.548 triple slash, had a 128 wRC+ and .377 wOBA, and had 2.8 fWAR over 144 games.

That year, he also reached the playoffs for the first and only time in his career. Between the NLDS and NLCS, Delgado hit .351/.442/.757 with four long balls.

The following season was a bit of a down year for Delgado. He hit 24 home runs, had a triple slash of .258/.333/.448, but his wRC+ was just 101 and his wOBA regressed to .336. He finished the year with just 0.5 fWAR.

2008 would be Delgado’s last full season as a Met, and he played nearly every game, appearing in all but three for the Mets. He put up similar production to his ’06 season with the team, as he had 2.4 fWAR, and again hit 38 home runs. His wRC+ improved to 123 and he raised his wOBA to .366.

What bogged Delgado down during his time with the Mets was his fielding. Over the span of four seasons with the team, he had -16 defensive runs saved (DRS) and a -8.9 ultimate zone range (UZR).

Overall, Delgado was worth 6.1 fWAR over four seasons with New York.

Lucas Duda debuted with the Mets in 2010. For his first few seasons, however, the team bounced him around the diamond.

With Ike Davis holding down the fort at first base, Duda spent a lot of time out of position in the outfield.

From 2010-14, Duda played nearly 2,000 innings in the outfield for the Mets, compared to just 635.1 at first base.

Going into 2014, with Davis struggling to match his success from earlier in his career after suffering from valley fever, the team went into the season with a tandem of Davis and Duda at first base.

However, Davis was shipped off to the Pittsburgh Pirates early in the 2014, as the Mets chose to go with Duda at first base.

Once Duda started getting regular reps at his natural position, he began to settle into his game.

That 2014 season, Duda hit 30 home runs, had a .253/.349/.481 triple slash, a 135 wRC+, .361 wOBA and had 3.1 fWAR.

The following year, Duda matched his 2014 performance with another 3+ fWAR season, 27 more long balls, a .244/.352/.486 triple slash, a 135 wRC+ and a .361 wOBA.

After an injury-laden 2016 season, Duda started 2017 strong, appearing in 72 games for the Mets and clubbing 17 home runs before he was shipped off to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitching prospect Drew Smith prior to the trade deadline. He had 1.1 fWAR at the time of the trade.

In the field during his time with the Mets as a first basemen, Duda was a serviceable defensive player. While not spectacular, he wasn’t a liability. From 2014-17, he had nine DRS and a 0.7 UZR.

Overall, from 2014-17, the first baseman logged 7.5 fWAR.

The two big knocks on Duda during his time with the Mets were his errant throw in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, and that he only hit “meaningless” home runs.

For the first point, I think it’s unfair to judge a player on an isolated incident. It’s like blaming Mets all-time great Carlos Beltran on striking out looking in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. Or blaming Bill Buckner solely for the Red Sox losing Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Like anything else, baseball is a team sport and there are many reasons why teams don’t win.

The 2006 Mets struggled in the NLCS that year offensively, and were rolling out a decimated pitching staff. The 1986 Red Sox bullpen blew the game when they had the Mets down to their final strike multiple times and also had a Game 7 to redeem themselves. And the 2015 Mets cooled off after sweeping the Cubs in the NLCS, and fell victim to the relentless Kansas City Royals who exposed the Mets weaknesses around the diamond. Also, the team’s bats went silent.

As for the “meaningless” home runs, let’s take a look.

Since 2014 and 2015 were Duda’s two full seasons as a Met manning first base, I have included his clutch stats from those years, courtesy of Baseball Reference.

First, here is 2014.

And here is 2015.

While it would be unrealistic to say Duda was the most clutch player as a Met, he certainly wasn’t as bad as he’s made out to be.

Since I have used Duda’s two full seasons as a first basemen, I have decided to see what Delgado did during his two best seasons as a Met, in 2006 and 2008.

Here’s 2006: